Did Apple “Push” Safari 4 Out to Millions of Users? Not Really.
Paul Thurrott, in a post featured prominently on Techmeme, wrote Friday that Apple is “making lemonade” in claiming that its new web browser, Safari 4, has been downloaded more than 11 million times. Paul quotes approvingly from a piece by PC World’s Robert Strohmeyer which was cross-posted to Macworld:
As someone with three Macs at home, I couldn’t help but notice that Apple pushed Safari 4 out as an automatic update to all of its users this week. Yesterday, all three of the Macs in my household received the update, and we don’t even use Safari.
An informal poll of my friends and colleagues reveals a whole lot of the same. Got the update dialog, downloaded and installed it, don’t intend to use it.
What is at issue is the ridiculously thin claim that the latest Safari is a wild success on the basis that Apple basically pushed it out to everyone it possibly could, whether they wanted it or not.
(Emphasis Paul’s.)
What I take issue with is Robert’s equally misleading title (“Safari 4 download stat is pure hype”) and use of the phrase “pushed it out“. I suppose it depends on how you define “push“, but to me, this reflects a lack of understanding of how Apple Software Update works.
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